Anti-casino ad attacks money man

Oct. 20, 2009

Written by

Dan Gilbert / The Enquirer/Malinda Hartong

Gilbert's dynasty

Companies, arenas and sports teams owned or managed by Dan Gilbert:

Rock Ventures: The suburban Detroit-based umbrella company that includes all of Gilbert's businesses. The company has options on downtown properties in Cincinnati and Cleveland where it will develop casinos if voters legalize them in November.

Quicken Loans: The nation's largest online retail mortgage lender. Based in suburban Detroit and slated to move into that city next spring, it employs about 3,000 nationwide. It has operations in downtown Cleveland as well as North Scottsdale, Ariz.

Cleveland Cavaliers: The National Basketball Association team.

Quicken Loans Arena: Managed by Gilbert's enterprises - also known as "The Q" is home to the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Lake Erie Monsters: The arena hosts nearly 1.5 million people at 200 events yearly.

Xenith: A Boston-based sports helmet company.

Fathead LLC: A Detroit company that licenses and sells life-size vinyl wall graphic of athletes in action poses, football helmets, logos, and race cars. The Fathead product line includes MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, NASCAR, Dallas CowboysCheerleaders, Star Wars, and Collegiate wall graphics: Originally founded by Steve Warshak, the Amberley Village man now in federal prison after his role at Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals..

Casino Commission

New Ohio casinos, management companies and key employees would be licensed and regulated by a seven-member Casino Control Commission, appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Ohio Senate. According to the proposed constitutional amendment:

All commission members must be Ohio residents.

At least one member must have law enforcement and criminal investigation experience.

At least one must be a certified public accountant

At least one must be an attorney, licensed to practice in Ohio.

One must be a resident of a county were one of the casinos is located.

No more than four can be from the same political party

And no commission member may have any affiliation with an Ohio casino operator or a facility

More

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COLUMBUS - A new television ad tries to persuade Ohio voters to defeat a Nov. 3 ballot issue legalizing casinos by saying one of its operators was arrested for illegal bookmaking 28 years ago.

TruthPAC, a group financed in part by Mountaineer Casino in West Virginia and horse tracks, discredits Cleveland Cavaliers' owner Dan Gilbert by publicizing a felony charge.

Gilbert is the leading partner of casinos proposed at Cincinnati's Broadway Commons and in Cleveland. He was a freshman at Michigan State University at the time; the charge was removed from his record after he paid an unspecified fine and completed 100 hours of community service, according to newspaper accounts.

At a Cleveland City Club Forum on Monday, Gilbert downplayed the arrest, saying the case was dropped "a few months later and no money was ever exchanged.'' USA TODAY identified it as a $114,000 ring.

If voters legalize the casinos, Gilbert said he plans to hire an outside casino operator to run his two casinos and also plans to sell minority stakes in the business.

Possible local investors would include former Hamilton County Republican Party Chairman George Vincent and former NBA basketball star Oscar Robertson, according to Bob Tenenbaum, spokesman for the pro-casino Ohio Jobs and Growth Plan.

Gilbert made no additional comments about the case Tuesday.

A second casino operator, Penn National Gaming - which operates Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg - proposes casinos in Columbus and Toledo.

Tenenbaum said the Ohio Casino Control Commission would have broad authority over the licensing and regulating of new casinos, its management companies and key employees. Tenenbaum's committee supports Issue 3. The casino commission is a seven-member board that would be creased by passage of the constitutional amendment.

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Tom Zaino, a member of the Ohio State Racing Commission, said: "I cannot imagine if a regulatory authority wouldn't consider bookmaking to be a significant charge and a very significant impediment to getting any type of a license.''

Zaino is one of five members of the state Racing Commission, which licenses and regulates the state's seven horse tracks.

Zaino said the state Racing Commission has denied licenses to people who have been charged with bookmaking but pleaded guilty to a lesser non-felony charge. "It really all goes to character,'' he said.

Zaino, former state tax commissioner, conceded his support of horse tracks may put him at odds with casinos. But he has done extension research in case slot machines are eventually legalized at Ohio tracks. "Any type of gambling infraction is taken very seriously by state gambling regulators across the nation, even in cases where the charges were later expunged,'' Zaino said.

Gilbert's latest venture is to build two Las Vegas-style casinos downtown at Broadway Commons and in Cleveland, making an estimated $1.2 billion a year in gambling revenues starting in 2013. If voters approve the measure, casinos also would be built in Columbus and Toledo by Wyomissing, Pa-based Penn National Gaming.

At Monday's Cleveland forum, an audience member asked Gilbert what sort of crimes should disqualify someone from operating a casino in Ohio. "So as far as what crimes?'' Gilbert mused. "I don't know. Probably murder, rape, extortion of funds, larceny, things like that. Good question, though.''